Here’s Why Social Media Marketing is Critical in 2016

Since its development, social media has played a continuous role in how people interact with each other. From a business standpoint, it contributes to how companies interact with potential customers as well. As this has become a powerful method for organizations to reach a target market, many social platforms have integrated methods to help businesses reach their audiences. According to Statista, 97% of the global share of companies uses social media marketing.

Many believe that social media marketing is just as valuable as televised advertisements without the hefty costs. It’s all about reaching a large number of people in a cost-efficient manner. The following are points of interest which demonstrate why this kind of strategy is important for business practices in 2016.

Why Social Media Integration is Necessary in 2016

Experts such as Ekaterina Walter, bestselling author and marketing guru, point out how trust in a brand is a universal constant. Regardless of how technology evolves over the years, consumers will often side with a name they trust. Part of the importance of social media marketing centers around cultivating that trust on a more personal level. It’s a platform that allows businesses to directly interact with consumers. This interaction contributes to building a strong online reputation.

The Impact of Online Reputation

Approximately three-quarters of shoppers today will research a company online before making a purchase. More and more consumers are abandoning the traditional phone book because it doesn’t tell them anything about the company. Online reputation is where many companies have the most impact from customers. Social engagement, customer reviews and other aspects contribute to someone’s decision to make that initial purchase.

Driving Traffic through Social Media

In August of 2015, Facebook reported that it had almost 1.5 billion users who log in at least once in any given month. According to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the popular social hub, approximately one in every seven people on the planet use the site to connect to friends and family. These numbers don’t include other popular sites such as Twitter and YouTube. When you take into consideration the sheer number of people that only use Facebook, you can begin to understand the importance of social media marketing to engage a vast target audience.

With each post that is shared or interacted with on Facebook, there is potential to drive traffic to your website. Whether you’re offering free information or selling goods through eCommerce, the results could be incredible. Instead of relying on ad-sharing networks, connecting with consumers in this fashion has potential to be more productive. This is especially true when it comes to creating a trustworthy brand. People are more likely to buy from a company that is interactive on social media.

Social profiles can also play a role in exposure on sites such as Google. These profiles are appearing in search results when consumers are looking for brands or products. Developing a social presence may serve to improve your placement in these results as content is crawled by the search engines.

Cost Efficiency

One of the key components that drive companies to use social media marketing is the overall cost for upkeep. As most profiles on these sites are free, engaging potential consumers has no expense other than time. It takes less than a minute to respond to an individual or post a link to new content on your website.

Advertising campaigns on social media sites may also be more cost efficient than methods you may be using today. For example, a retail store in Denver can use pay-per-click ads in Facebook to target only those users in the immediate area. This has potential to increase the return-on-investment as people in Miami wouldn’t see the ad and click on it.

Social Search Engine Algorithms

Some social media sites have been toying with the idea of developing their own search engine algorithms. As Facebook handles more than 1.5 billion searches every day, the social company has spent time fine-tuning the results. By putting effort into building your online presence, users are capable of finding your company and content when searching this continuously growing database.

Increasing Sales

Currently, one in every ten online purchases around the world originates from social media channels. Many experts believe that this number is going to grow in the near future. It’s estimated that eCommerce will surpass the $1 trillion dollar mark by 2019. This means that billions of dollars may be spent by social media consumers.

How You Can Fine Tune Your Social Marketing for the Future

Many believe that social media sites are just as influential as television ads, if not more so. From a single 140-character post on Twitter, you could engage thousands of people who are interested in your brand or message. What can be done to fine tune your own strategies for the future?

Profiles Galore

Don’t center your attention on just one social media outlet. Some of the biggest companies in the world have active profiles on nearly every social channel. The important thing to remember is how to maximize those sites regarding your industry. For example, using Pinterest to show foods from a restaurant is ideal. However, online service providers may have a harder time making Pinterest worthwhile. Find social outlets that best fit your organization.

Create Engaging Material

Too many people try to create “viral” content that can be seen by millions. However, creating engaging content is more productive. It focuses the material on those who show greater potential for buying from your business. If the content you create does go viral, then that’s just frosting on the cake. Don’t try to force the message in order to become an overnight sensation.

Conversational, Not Promotional

It’s been found that people on social networks are more receptive to posts that are more conversational in origin. Promoting a product seems too much like an advertisement, and the masses could ignore the post. Create a more personal message regarding your content to attract more consumers.

Interact With Fans and Followers

Interacting with people who comment or otherwise follow the business can build strong ties. It makes the situation seem less forced and more organic. In other words, people are more likely to trust a company that offers insights and communicates with them.

Mass Posting

Tools such as Buffer, Hootsuite, TweetDeck, and SproutSocial are excellent for distributing your content to all of your social profiles. From a single point, you can send a post to the most popular social hubs simultaneously. This means you don’t have to visit each site one-by-one to share your new posts or images. Most of these have free adaptations for beginners, but paying for the premium accounts could be a time-saving investment.

Surveys show that businesses are likely to spend more money on social media marketing in the upcoming years. This is because positive results have been experienced by many. By understanding the importance of social media marketing, you can build strategies that have potential to increase your income. Connect to your target audience on these platforms, and give them a reason to trust your brand.

Definitely organic traffic from search engines is the largest and happened to be the best form of traffic in-terms of relevancy and conversions. But social traffic also matters, especially in brand awareness and reputation. Paid social traffic is targeted and converts too. Diversifying marketing budget and resources into different marketing channels is the source of online success.